Rainfall and humidity expected to help battle fire near Labrador City, says official
CBC
Provincial fire duty officer George Gibbons says Sunday's efforts to fight a Category 1 fire near Labrador City were successful — and he's optimistic Monday's forecast of rain will help contain it.
Gibbons said the fire threatening the town has burned 14,000 hectares but work done by provincial firefighting crews was effective on the weekend.
"We did hold the perimeter there yesterday, which is a positive," he told CBC News on Monday morning.
However, he said there is still a lot of smoke in the air and there are hot spots around the fire's perimeter, he said.
"It's still a very hot and active fire."
On Friday evening, the provincial government ordered the town's evacuation, forcing more than 9,000 people to leave. Neighbouring Wabush is still under an evacuation alert.
The priority right now is to stop the fire from reaching the city and other critical infrastructure, said Gibbons. Water bombers will focus on the fire's southern and southwest perimeters on Monday.
Monday's forecast calls for rain, he said, which will increase humidity in the air and help fire suppression.
According to the provincial government's online fire dashboard, there are 13 fires in Labrador as of Monday morning.
Gibbons said some fires are being held or monitored and he hopes they will be extinguished in the next few days, allowing more resources to be diverted to Labrador West.
The provincial fire service hopes to bring in additional resources from outside Newfoundland and Labrador, he said, but that could be tricky as other fires across the country mean there are limited resources to request.
"There's a number of people that are competing for the same resources. There's a lot of fire activity across Canada," said Gibbons.
Justin Boudreau, a meteorologist at the Gander weather office, said the immediate forecast for the Labrador West area is mixed.
"We have some good and bad news. Good news is it should be showering all day. The high should be around 20 C so not overly hot. It'd be better if it was colder," he told CBC News on Monday.
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